Media Reviews

The Kingston Whig-Standard's Peter Hendra each supports us with an article describing our exhibition. Here's 2018's:

Art show tackles gender issues

October 14, 2018

by Peter Hendra, Kingston Whig Standard

Book artist and OKWA member Lise Melhorn-Boe works at her home studio on “Mending,” her newest book project. (Nancy McIntosh/Supplied Photo)

As they do every year, the members of the Organization of Kingston Women Artists get together and choose a theme for their annual members exhibition.

With the #metoo movement and all of the social upheaval of the past year, this year’s theme was a “no-brainer,” said OKWA member Jane Derby. “Now that feminism is back in vogue, we could take advantage of the opportunity of the new interest in women’s art to get our work out in the public sphere,” she suggested.

“Gender Bias,” this year’s OKWA show, opened Wednesday inside the gallery on the ground floor of the Tett Centre, and the opening reception is Sunday from 2 to 4 p.m. There will also be a panel discussion about the relevance of defining gender issues in artistic practice on Oct. 25 at 7 p.m..

Addressing gender made sense, Derby said, as she believes OKWA was “started in a feminist spirit. “Before the backlash against feminism started and the word became suspect and discredited, I think there’s been a certain amount of keeping one’s head down about talking about that theme, but we all know that to be a successful woman artist is difficult. It’s not easy,” explained Derby, who has a piece in the show.

“There are lots of shows on the local level; Kingston’s very welcoming to women artists. But in terms of the national stage, the statistics are pretty gruesome.” According to New York magazine, only 5% of artworks at major museums in the United States were created by women artists, while that figure dropped to 4% when it came to the 383 works of art housed in the Museum of Modern Art’s 20th-century collection. And the National Endowment of the Arts found that women, who comprise 51% of the full-time visual artists working today, make 81 cents for every dollar male artists make.

Local book artist Lise Melhorn-Boe also has a piece in the show called “Button,” named for the Lorna Crozier poem written on the pieces of clothing buttoned together. The books she creates are not traditional ones comprised of pages and a cover, but ones created with fabric. “Making books became my primary medium, but I have made a political statement in using traditional textile techniques because of their classification of being women’s work,” she said.

Feminism has been a recurring theme in much of her work, she said, and some of her pieces addressed what happens to the female body over time. “And then I had a child, so then I started thinking about the socialization of children, how we grow into our roles, the role of mother, the role of wife, and getting older,” she said. “It kind of started with my own life experiences.”

And gender bias is a topic with which she is familiar, she said, noting that she usually prefers songs and books by women.

“I don’t know how anyone who’s female in our business wouldn’t notice gender bias in our society,” said Melhorn-Boe, who lists Judy Chicago and Louise Bourgeois as two of the biggest influences on her career.

Like Melhorn-Boe, Maya Jagger’s piece in this year’s exhibition, titled “Unleashing the Female Gaze,” comprised of 9 selfies shot with her smart phone, is meant to challenge stereotype. “I looked over my work and I saw what we’ve been referring to as the ‘female gaze,’ because, historically, the male gaze was basically men having a lot of control what the images were of women, how they looked and how they posed,” she explained. The selfie, she now feels, is empowering in that it allows a person the freedom to express oneself. “All of a sudden people who are disenfranchised around the world have a tool (with which) they can show themselves in whatever pose they want, they don’t have to look conventionally pretty, or the way women have been portrayed in advertisements,” Jagger said. “There’s a whole body of work now that I found out is made by people of different genders, body types, colours, poses. So there’s a lot of creativity unleashed in that. Some people view it as a political statement because it’s no longer images of women as controlled and seen by Madison Avenue.”

And she arranged those selfies, many of which are punctuated with quotations, in a grid so it resembled a quilt, a traditional way for women to express creativity. “It was OK for women to do so-called domestic art, but women as painters or photographers, the doors for that were closed for a long time,” Jagger said. Her OKWA piece is more political than her work typically is, she suggested, but that’s just a reflection of the world we live in. “We feel like at a time like this in history,” she said, “it’s very important to say what we think in whatever form we can do it.”

Essentials

What: “Gender Bias” is the title of this year’s edition of the Organization of Kingston Women Artists’ members exhibition. The opening reception is Saturday from 2 to 4 p.m.

When: Tuesdays to Sundays, noon-5 p.m., until Nov. 4.

Where: The Tett Centre, 370 King St. W.

Our 2017 exhibition was well reviewed in the Kingston Whig-Standard. The focus was on the highlighting theme of our show "Inspired..."

When it came to selecting a theme for this year’s exhibit, the Organization of Kingston Women Artists’ board members chose the obvious one: Canada’s 150th. But when it came to finding a way to weave the theme into the annual show and sale, that’s when board member Mary O’Brien jumped in.

O’Brien, who taught college students drawing, painting and design for two decades, suggested that, along with their submitted pieces, each artist should write about a Canadian artist who inspired them, and how.

The annual show, titled “Inspired By …,” opened this week at the Community Gallery inside the Tett Centre.

For her choice, O’Brien, whose acrylic on canvas piece in the show is titled “Equilibrium,” chose fellow Kingston artist Susan Paloschi.

Paloschi, she said, was “determined to make art despite everything else.”

Like O’Brien, printmaker Wendy Cain chose an artist with whom she had a personal connection.

She was in her third year at the University of Toronto when, in what was supposed to be her historical techniques class, in walked her instructor, a young, contemporary painter named Kim Andrews who “just kind of blew the socks off the class,” she remembered.

The program she was in was comprised of students who were more interested in teaching art than practising it, she said.

“He just basically set us loose,” she said, and reinterpreted the curriculum.

Up until then it had been a rigid program, she said, and Andrews “gave me the courage to imagine that I could actually make art.”

Andrews would later become her supervisor for another program.

“I had this freedom to pursue this newly found passion,” she remembered, “and, when you’re in your early 20s, you can be very passionate about things.”

Andrews, who advised Cain that “white is not just white,” influenced her piece for the show, “Ghost Forest,” because he has done a tremendous amount of work with white tones as an abstract painter.”

Bourdas “changed art in Quebec,” she said, where he started the “Automatiste” movement.

“They really started a new movement in art,” explained Marshall, who particularly admired Bourdas’ older work, which was “bold, simple and to the point,” and she switched from watercolours to abstract painting

“We take for granted all of these steps in art. To start doing something completely new and from the heart, and having an instinct for it when you don’t have someone before you doing the same thing, when you just have to rely on your own instinct and believe you’ve got something, you have to be incredibly brave, and that’s sort of why I admire him and always have.”

Like Marshall, Jane Derby returned to school later in life, and she remembers clearly when she first saw the work of Paterson Ewen.

Derby, whose three-dimensional works combine painting and sculpture, was walking in the Art Gallery of Ontario one day when she came across one of Ewen’s enormous wall paintings, and she was intrigued by an object placed in the centre of it all.

“It was the fact that I’m looking at this painting in the AGO, it’s enormous, and it’s fabulous colours and a fabulous sky, it was probably nine feet by nine feet, and plonked right in the middle of this is this round, metal disk, and then I thought that you could attach stuff to paintings, that you could combine not just paint but sculptural elements, too,” Derby recalled.

“And that’s what I’ve been doing in my painting ever since.”

“Inspired By …” runs until Oct. 29 inside the Community Gallery at the Tett Centre on King Street, and the opening reception takes place on Sunday, Oct. 15, from 2 to 4 p.m.

It has been another year, unbelievably, since the last Organization of Kingston Women Artists (OKWA) annual show. Last year I had the pleasure of taking part in a panel discussion at the opening, so I was interested in going to have a look at this year’s exhibition. From now until March 1 the show will be available for viewing at the Window Art Gallery (at Victoria and Princess streets).

The usual venue for the OKWA annual exhibition has heretofore been the large gallery space in the Wilson Room of the main branch of the Kingston Frontenac Public Library. However, at the beginning of this year and continuing through 2016 the gallery space and other areas of the library will be undergoing renovations, requiring closure of the building at certain times, so the library is at least temporarily out of the art business. This is unfortunate, because the Wilson Room and the adjacent Foyer Gallery were large, accessible spaces with reasonable lighting and hanging hardware, though they surely had some limitations as well.

The brand-spanking-new Tett Centre for Creativity and Learning has a few Community Exhibition galleries, which (not yet having seen them) seem like good possible options for large, modern gallery exhibition space. The posted rental rates might be prohibitive for many groups and individuals seeking venues to display their art for any length of time, however.

The Window Art Gallery is a non-profit, volunteer-run gallery, with operating costs defrayed in part by artist exhibition fees, though these fees do not appear to be published. Whatever they might be, the Window Art Gallery is a bright, light-filled space with some movable walls that allow for reconfiguration of the exhibition space. Happily, since last year’s notorious conflagration directly across the street from the gallery, the Window Art Gallery and its parent organization the Kingston School of Art have been undergoing renovations, with all of the fire-cracked window glass replaced in the gallery. The expansion of some of the studio space in the school has, unfortunately, eroded some of the square footage of the gallery, but it is still a nice exhibition venue.

While the foregoing may seem like something of a digression, it is actually relevant to this year’s OKWA show. In the expansive space previously available at the library, the annual OKWA show was a large, juried exhibition, with work submitted by a significant percentage of the OKWA’s membership (with membership itself being a vetted process). I have in the past had issues with the one-person “jury” usually enlisted for the annual show, but it did provide at least some critical evaluation of submitted work, even if the judge’s choices of best-in-show might leave one slightly perplexed. Regardless, it was a format that doubtless benefited OKWA members and additionally enlivened the viewer experience.

With the change to the smaller venue the OKWA exhibition is this year dubbed a “Group Show,” presumably un-juried, and is a fraction of the size of previous shows. This has both positive and negative side effects. On the down side, one doesn’t see the range — the depth and breadth — of the artistic talent within the membership of the OKWA because a smaller percentage of members are exhibiting work. As well, there is overall less variety, simply because there are far fewer artworks on display.

On the plus side, this year’s OKWA show is much more intimate in scale, with a very manageable number of works to view (where previously one might have felt slightly overwhelmed). A viewer can spend more time with individual works, and can make closer comparisons between pieces without the dual distraction of distance and intervening art.

There is still variety to be had, too, with works running the gamut between high realism and complete non-representation, with an equal mixture of subjects. There is a fair representation of media as well, with paintings, sculptural works, prints, photography, collage and encaustic offerings. In particular, without a preponderance of two-dimensional art, the smaller exhibition space allows the sculptural forms to stand out and shine this year. Of note are Jane Derby’s reclaimed metal “Rock Cut” and Linda Williams’ slab construction sculpture “Disco,” two very different and intriguing pieces.

Though the annual OKWA exhibition is in a much smaller venue this year, it is worthwhile stopping by to view this more intimate show. It’s the perfect size to incorporate an art break into your day.

Kamille Parkinson is the owner of Upper Canada Art Consulting (UCAC), specializing in Appraisal of Fine Art, Art Writing, and Art Consulting. She has a PhD in Art History from Queen’s University and is an International Society of Appraisers Accredited Member in Fine Art.

How contemporary art is judged will be the topic of a panel debate at this year’s exhibition put on by The Organization of Kingston Women Artists next weekend. Organizer Jane Derby wanted to do something different for this year’s show, which marks the local group’s quarter-century of existence.

“I think it’s particularly pertinent in this day and age because I think the art-going public, and the artists themselves, is so diverse, and there are so many things going on, that people don’t really have any idea about how to talk about art anymore,” explained Derby.

Writer Melanie Dugan, art consultant and Whig-Standard columnist Kamille Parkinson, and artist Daniel Hughes comprise the panel that will debate the merits of the three pieces they have each chosen.

“The idea of one juror picking is controversial because there’s always disagreement, and it always precipitated discussion,” Derby noted. “So I thought it would be a good idea to have three different people pick. Normally, when three jurors pick … they get together and choose their top three. So it appears to be a unanimous process, when in fact it isn’t.”

Ideally, Derby hopes the discussion — which takes place next Saturday from 3 to 5 p.m. in the Wilson Room of the downtown branch of the public library — will make art more approachable. “I hope it’s an honest and frank discussion and … looks behind the scenes at what experts actually disagree about what they consider good,” said Derby, who will play the role of moderator.

As an artist, Hughes has both been a judge and been judged. What constitutes good art has been a common discussion for as long as he can remember. In his current role as a part-time art instructor at St. Lawrence College, he regularly critiques his students’ work.

Hughes, a figurative artist, has his own criteria based on the saying that a good painting comes from the head, the hands and the heart. “It has to be a good idea, it has to be well-constructed and thought through,” he explained. “It has to touch you. And it has to be well-crafted. I think those three things will make a good piece of art. I tend not to like art that doesn’t have all three of those elements on some level.”

Being an artist can pose a problem when judging other artists’ work of his genre, Hughes admitted. “In a way, it’s harder for me, if I’m looking at a figurative piece, I’m going to be looking at the skill very quickly because that’s where I’m coming from, right?” he offered. “So, in a way, it might be even harder for me to pick something that’s figurative. Who knows?”

While the panel debate isn’t until next weekend, the general public — which will be able to ask questions of the panellists — can go take a look for themselves at this year’s exhibition, which opened Friday, in the meantime.

Roughly 50 juried artists currently belong to OKWA, which formed shortly after the anonymous Guerilla Girls movement in 1985 that sought greater representation for women in the art world.

The group’s first project was a date book illustrated with photos of its artwork. OKWA is undertaking a similar, but grander, project this year: with some funding from the city, it is producing an art book containing members’ paintings to celebrate its 25 years. The book will arrive in June.

Still, Derby is looking forward to next Saturday’s event and isn’t sure what to expect as the panel weighs the “formal” qualities of the art compared to its conceptual merit and originality. “I think it’s going to be really interesting to see which jurors come down on which sides of those issues,” Derby said. “Whether the formal thing is more important than the idea, or whether the idea is more important than the formal thing, or it’s a combination, I don’t know. I’m curious myself.”

The Organization of Kingston Women Artists (OKWA) is entering its 23rd year of existence, and its annual juried exhibition and sale is now up on the walls at the main branch of the Kingston Frontenac Public Library until Feb. 24.

With the stated aim of "increasing awareness and appreciation of women's art," the show aptly illustrates the depth and breadth of talent among female artists in this city. While only a percentage of the artists who are members of OKWA are represented in this show, there are a large variety of subjects, approaches and mediums to consider.

If still life is your cup of tea, there are several examples of this genre in the current show, most notably the large pastel works of Margaret Hughes. Many people were disappointed when Hughes stopped making pottery, but they should be pleased to note that she has transferred her discerning eye for colour and composition to two-dimensional works. Not overtly detailed transcriptions, Hughes' pastel paintings are slightly abstracted celebrations of form and pattern that often feature her own and others' pottery intermingled with other everyday items.

Figural works are also represented: by Teri Wing's oil paintings (moody, introspective works); by Katharine Christensen's encaustic work; and by Diane Black's whimsical ceramic forms. Of the latter's work, Black has a unique way of representing humanity - there is a certain amusing grotesquerie in her work that strikes unerringly at the human condition - and though it may not appeal to everyone's taste, one can hardly help a certain fascination with her characters.

At the OKWA show, there is landscape in abundance, loosely defined in the sense that here it is both representational and abstract. Margaret Lock exhibits her love of wilderness hiking with two pastel works featuring local autumn scenery. These are luminous images that deftly capture those warm fall days we experienced last year, with bursts of colour against the foil of blue water. In contrast, Sally Milne's ice-themed watercolour is a striking abstraction by virtue of extreme proximity to its subject matter. Sometimes referred to as fragmented, this type of view is a realistic representation that becomes distorted or abstracted because contextual referents are lost. Jane Derby also enters the landscape theme with her mixed-media work "Tinscape," a sparkling, spiny field of cut aluminum with a low horizon line that does evoke a kind of prairie esthetic.

There are also a few examples of non-representational art here, as well as prints, fibre art and other mixed-media works. The range is impressive and interesting to view, there is no question about that. As I did last year with this show, I do, however, have reservations about some of the choices made by the one-person jury regarding the winning entries.

Let me be clear - the works chosen, and the rest of the works in the show, are fine works of art and their quality is not in doubt, nor do I intend to impugn the juror's judgment. I do, however, wonder if the general public will fully appreciate the reasoning behind the selections. They might be forgiven for walking away with the feeling (as I did) that in order to be awarded a ribbon, a work had to have the No. 2 in the title (which, as it happens, was not a failsafe way to be in the winner's circle, so it couldn't have been that). And I humbly submit that I have a fairly reasonable grasp of art and its merits.

No, the problem is that this annual show is usually judged by a one-person jury - a person who, like last year, is a recognized professional artist in her own right. (This isn't a personal criticism of this year's juror, Natalka Husar, by the way.) I recognize that OKWA and its members want to have their work evaluated and judged by someone who has herself received critical acclaim, because it validates their own artistic practice. I also understand that (if an honorarium is involved) having a single juror makes good financial sense. I get all that. But a working contemporary artist will likely evaluate others' work on an entirely different level than your average art appreciator.

In her remarks at the opening of this year's OKWA show, Husar did freely state: "What I choose and what any juror or anybody in the art world would choose . is only a matter of opinion for that particular event. What I reject, someone else in another situation will embrace. That is very important to keep in mind." Well said, and very true. However, the key point here is "anybody in the art world." Populated by a healthy dose of immigrants to the land of artspeak, conceptual art, and academics posturing for academics, the "art world" can be rather insular, with a tendency to write for like-minded people - not for people who want to know why what they are looking at received an award and not be flummoxed by impenetrable language and ideas.

For example (and again it's nothing personal), why was Erica Olsen's still life selected as a winner over one of Margaret Hughes' works? Popular opinion might put it the other way around, and I'd like it if someone could provide a satisfactory explanation that the majority of people can understand (though it's not necessary that they agree with it). If you'd like to read Husar's comments on each of the works she chose, go online to organizationofkingstonwomenartists.blogspot.com/ and look at the posts for February. Helpful, but not thoroughly enlightening.

Maybe the organizers of the annual show could consider having a People's Choice Award in addition to the decisions of the juror. While an artist first and foremost creates art for him/herself, and only secondarily for the public, it might be instructive to have this kind of feedback on their work. After all, isn't the jury process also supposed to be about what the (buying) public will want to acquire - because they like it, and not because they have this vague sense that the-critics-like-it-so-it-must-be-OK.